


iduna

by forestmagicwithin



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21536182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestmagicwithin/pseuds/forestmagicwithin
Relationships: Agnarr & Iduna (Disney), Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	iduna

***not a fic, just some thoughts***

Iduna, queen of Arendelle.

All her life, she'd lived in the forest. She'd always known the forest's magic, always grown up surrounded by the Northuldra and their stories and their love. 

Iduna knew little to nothing about Arendelle culture, and suddenly she had to live among them. She was shut out from her home by the mist, unable to return. Any family or lifelong friends she'd had, the entire community she'd grown up in, everything that had ever been important and familiar, was lost to her. Maybe she tried, perhaps more than once, to go home. Maybe she threw herself against the wall of mist over and over, shouting and hoping someone on the other side could hear her. Maybe she'd quiet for a few moments, desperately hoping she'd heard a reply, but realizing there was nothing there, and that there never would be. Maybe she sang the songs she remembered to the mist, both to comfort herself and as a last resort, wishing a voice from the other side would join in.

Maybe, years and decades later, that same song finally brought her daughter home, still echoing in her voice.

But Iduna never got to go home. She held on to the hope that one day, the mist would lift and the forest would be open to her, but she never saw her home again. She never sang with the Northuldra or played among the spirits. She had to learn to live in Arendelle society. The sacrifice she'd made was rewarded in part by the great love she found in Agnarr, and she learned to build a new home with him. She filled it with love and laughter, singing to her two precious girls. They were her other reward; at the time, however, the magic within Elsa must have seemed more like a curse.

Arendelle was not a place of magic. That's why Agnarr's father was so afraid of it, and Agnarr so enchanted. The only other source of magic, the trolls, seem half-forgotten to Arendelle entirely. (side note but the trolls absolutely give off earth spirit vibes, even though their rock giant cousins were sealed inside the forest and the other spirits remained equally cut off. why did the magic leave them? probably because it knew the fifth spirit would need guidance, idk I hope someone does an actual theory on it)

Without any magic in Arendelle, and the sudden unexplained presence of magic in Elsa, Iduna had to have concluded that it was because of her. She was Northuldra, however far away the forest seemed now, and the spirits had always loved their people. She must have thought that history in her blood had passed somehow to her tiny daughter. They knew Elsa had been born with her powers, so she must've started showing signs of it fairly early. Three years later, however, Iduna and Agnarr had another child.

It's very possible that Anna was an accident. At three years old, it's hard to say how much of a danger Elsa could've been perceived as, but magic had killed Agnarr's father. He's likely to have been wary of it from the beginning. The risk of a baby being vulnerable to that, or even the risk of having another magical child, wouldn't be something that Agnarr would take lightly, even if Iduna likely saw the magic as a gift at the time. After all, she'd been cut off from the magic she'd grown up with so suddenly; having even a small part of it back must've been incredible to her.

It wasn't until later that this view might have changed, specifically the night that Anna's head was frozen. After that, her husband wanted everything in his power to be done to protect Elsa from the world, and vice versa. He'd already lost at least a father, and now almost a daughter, to magic. He would've been hard to argue with. And Elsa was scared; Iduna probably didn't know what else to do, couldn't think of another solution.

Remember, she would've assumed Elsa's powers were a result of her Northuldran heritage. She blamed herself for the magic within her that had passed on to plague her daughters. They had to grow up unhappy and alone. That had to cut deeply, with an incredibly social Anna always asking for her sister and a trembling Elsa, trying not to feel anything at all. Elsa was trying to become less than human, stunting her mental and emotional growth significantly. This is perhaps best seen when she shouts at her parents not to touch her.

Iduna was never afraid to touch Elsa. From the beginning of Frozen II, she's holding Elsa and encouraging both daughters to cuddle. She was a warm and affectionate mother who believed in physical contact. Her history with the spirits also would've made her less afraid. She would have believed the spirits would never hurt her, before the night Anna almost died. Even after, it was always Agnarr who pushed the gloves on Elsa, Agnarr who didn't want anyone to touch her without them. He'd grown up with a militant, hypermasculine father, and later no father at all, with far too many responsibilities. His coronation painting is perhaps the best example of the lifestyle he'd learned to live. Iduna helped him become more open, but affection was always a secondary concern to safety. With Elsa, safety became practically the only thing he cared about.

Agnarr guided Elsa with the mantra, "Conceal, don't feel". In Ahtohallan, Iduna lovingly encouraged her daughter to "show yourself", allowing her to embrace not only her full potential but her full self. After six years, they finally got a loving, emotionally-charged reconciliation. And I wonder if Iduna was hoping it would be enough, if she was afraid of Elsa going too deep into Ahtohallan. Her spirit might have been watching as Elsa took the plunge down where no spirit could follow until the hold over the forest was lifted. She would've known it was necessary for the wrongs against the Northuldra to begin to be set right, but she was still a mother, watching her daughter "drown". Eighteen years of warnings in a melody, and she could do nothing but witness her greatest fear and hope that somewhere, her youngest daughter could save them both.

She was a warm, guiding presence for both Elsa and Anna. Both emulated their mother's hairstyle upon becoming queen, honoring and hoping to continue her graceful legacy. Years later, they remembered her lullaby and the sweet way she used it to help them sleep.

But when Elsa was eighteen, Iduna decided it was time to leave. She knew where to go. She knew what to look for. Why wait so long? Maybe she couldn't bear their unhappiness anymore; maybe she'd decided enough was enough. Maybe she wasn't sure she'd return, and she'd needed Elsa to be eighteen for political/legal reasons before she'd risk her life like that. Maybe Agnarr had made her wait. But something made her finally take the journey to Ahtohallan, searching for answers. Something to help her understand, something to help her help _Elsa_ understand and learn to control the magic.

She didn't tell her daughters the truth about where she was going. She tried to prevent exactly the reaction that Elsa had to discovering the real reason they'd gone. Elsa didn't have Anna back then; like Iduna, she blamed herself easily. In case Iduna didn't return, she didn't want Elsa believing she was the reason why.

They would've done their research. Iduna and Agnarr would've known the risks, especially having had to confront the dangers of the spirits all those years ago. Still, they went anyway. Love was the great power Iduna passed on, and it defined both her life and her death.

And the very first element to interact with Iduna's daughters in the forest? The wind spirit. The last spirit to interact with Iduna, before the great battle. Iduna, the girl who made a sacrifice worthy of a fifth spirit. Iduna, the mother of the woman called by Ahtohallan. Iduna, the Northuldran who could never go home because of the sacrifice she'd made. The wind spirit knew Elsa and Anna already, because it knew Iduna. Her own spirit of sacrifice lived on within them, and the wind welcomed them. (In its own way of course, in the form of the first challenger, but still.) The spirits never forgot Iduna, and because of her, they forgave Arendelle. She found love there despite the terrible harm their ruler had done, and the elements were able to find it as well.


End file.
